Solving the Graphene Scale-Up Problem

Solving the Graphene

Scale-Up ProblemDr Stephen Hodge

Principal Engineer

Tomorrow’s 2D materials,

available today

Nanene™

Graphene HP

Graphene Oxide & Reduced GO

Graphene ink

h-Boron Nitride-

Group Structure

What is Graphene?

GRAPHENE

A.K.Geim, K.S.Novoselov

Nobel prize in Physics 2010

BUCKMINSTERFULLERENENobel prize in Chemistry 1996

CARBON NANOTUBESIIJIMA, 1991

GRAPHITE

sp2 hybridization

Boron Nitride

A.K.Geim, K.S.Novoselov

Nobel prize in Physics 2010

Credit: 3M Technical Ceramics

Excellent chemical

stability

High mechanical

strength

Excellent thermal

stability and thermal

conductivity

Wide band gap material

– effective insulator or

dielectric material

UV light absorption

• Nanene™

• Graphene HP

• Graphene Oxide & Reduced GO (RGO)

• Graphene ink

• h-Boron Nitride-(Hexotene™) -

…available today

Tomorrow’s 2D materials…

What are the major barriers to market development?

• Cost of production / material

• Production Scale

• Production Quality

• Lack of Applications / End-user demand

• Production Processes

• Competing Existing Materials

• Lack of Standards / Characterization

• Health, Safety, Environmental Regulations

Graphene demand

Potential Industrial Applications

Mechanical enhancement

– thermosets & thermoplastic composites

Filtration

– water purification

Barrier

– moisture, gas etc.

Electrical energy storage

– batteries, supercapacitors

Thermal conductivity enhancement

– heat dissipation

Electrical conductivity

– printed electronics

Aerospace - CFRP

● Aerospace Market ~44,000 tonnes of CFRP in 2020*

● Graphene can reduce weight of CFRP and improve other

properties eg. thermal and electrical conductivity

● Reduced weight = big fuel savings

● If 10% of Aerospace CFRP requires graphene at 1%

graphene / kg CFRP, requirement is 44 tonnes of

graphene / year

*Reinforced Plastics Nov/Dec 2014

Automotive Tyres

● 6.4M tonnes of synthetic rubber is put into tyres every year*

● Graphene is reported to reduce tyre wear rate

● Fewer Primary Micro Plastics are created = significant

environmental benefit

● If 10% of tyres use graphene at a 1% loading, requirement

is 6,400 tonnes of graphene / year

*IUCN – Primary Micro Plastics in the Oceans

The prediction for 2020 is that 36M tonnes of plastics will

be used in automobiles every year*

There will be a very substantial global graphene

requirement for the automobile industry once

improvements are demonstrated

* Plastics Today

Automotive Plastics Demand

Scaling Up Production

Powders

Lab scale production

● When Versarien bought 2D-Tech, production of 4g of

Graphene took 90 hours

● That is ~1g per day

Part Processed material 1g

Small Scale Production

● Versarien have scaled up the process to produce much

larger quantities whilst maintaining the same quality

● For the last year, Versarien has had the capability to

produce 100g / day

Part Processed material 100g

Initial Commercial Production

● Versarien now has proven the technology to produce 1kg

of Nanene grade material per day

● The proven process is in the final stages of set-up for

production

● In 2 years, production has increased 1000 fold

Part Processed

material 1kg

Full Commercial Production

● Tonnes of graphene are required every day

● Requires a further 1000 fold increase in volume

● Plans are in place to:

> install larger machines capable of producing tens of kg/day

> use multiple machines to meet higher demand

Inks

Graphene Ink Scale Up

● Versarien also produce Graphene Ink which can be used

in printed electronics

● Trials were recently conducted to demonstrate that

production can go from 1 litre per day to 40 litres per day

● This will meet commercial demand for graphene ink

Graphene Ink Scale Up

Graphite + Solvent

(or water/surfactant)Energy olvent

+ Energy

Graphene Dispersion

Microfluidic Processing

ACS Nano, 2017, 11 (3), pp 2742–2755

Graphene Ink by Microfluidic Processing

Scalable 100% Yield Production of

Conductive Graphene Inks

Scalability

LAB SCALE:

Flow Rate: 100mL/min

Graphene flakes: 6.5 g/h

PRODUCTION SCALE:

Flow rates up to 12 L/min

Graphene Flakes 720 g/h

= 6.5 tonnes/yr or 65k ink p.a.

Conductive inks for printed electronics

Conductivity

(S/m)

Sheet Resistance

(Ω/ @ 25μm)

Applications

Electrodes in OPVs, OLEDs <10 Ω/

RF-ID antennas <5 Ω/

Problems with metal inks

Electromigration

Cost

Oxidation

Toxicity

Sheet Resistance

σ is the conductivity

h is the film thickness𝑅𝑠=

1

𝜎ℎ

Graphene 2x104 2

Silver, Copper 106-107 0.01

Graphite 4x102 - 4x103 100-10

Graphene Ink – Potential Applications

Case study

Graphene-

Carbon Fibre

Reinforced

Plastic body

3D-printed

Graphene ABS

Aerodynamic

components

Performance testing ongoing

Contact us…

Dr Stephen Hodge

sah211@cam.ac.uk

T: +44 (0)1223762388

nanene.com

2-dtech.com

cambridgegraphene.com